Postings of news stories and analysis of interest to working people by 9AM Central, Monday-Friday

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Labor Day 2012 Week In Review

Labor Day 2012 Week In Review

by Bill Onasch

September 2, 2012

Technical Problems

We are having temporary–we hope–problems in publishing updates to the kclabor.org website. This
text-only WIR is going out to our Yahoo e-mail list and published as well on the Labor Advocate Blog
at this link. We will also resume our Monday-Friday news updates Tuesday, September 4 on the Blog.

On A Personal Note

It’s been about three weeks since the last WIR. Part of that time I devoted to a trip to the Twin Cities
where I once resided. My friends in Socialist Action invited me to give a report to the SA convention
on workers and climate change–a crucial issue too often neglected by even those on the left. I was
pleased not only with the discussion around my assigned topic but also about what SA has been doing
in the antiwar, women’s rights, Occupy, and immigrant struggles. There was a well thought out analysis
of the world situation that included participation by guests from Canada, Greece, and Ireland. And, in
conjunction with the convention, there was a public meeting in defense of civil liberties under attack that
featured a broad speakers list and filled the CWA union hall. All in all, a very educational and
energizing few days.

My energy boost was soon applied to
more mundane activity. My hard-working wife Mary finally took
some time off for minor surgery. Her being off her feet for a while has
reminded me just how hard-working she is. Fortunately, Mary seems to be
healing as expected and, to the relief of all in our
household, will likely return to light duty soon.

Labor Day In the USA

In many countries of the world Labor, or Workers Day is celebrated on May 1. This date has its roots
in U.S. history. It was chosen to commemorate the bloody Haymarket Affair arising out of the fight for
the eight-hour day in Chicago in 1886.

When immigrant workers in this country launched massive actions a few years ago to defend their
human rights–some running in the hundreds of thousands–they chose the familiar May Day to down
tools and hit the streets.

But a long competing proposal for a first Monday in September, marking the end of summer rather than
the flowering of spring, inspired by a traditional festival honoring work in Toronto rather than class
struggle in Chicago, was made an official national holiday in 1894 by Democrat President Grover
Cleveland.

Cleveland’s recognition of Labor came shortly after he used the U.S. Army to violently break the
Pullman Strike that had shut down most of the country’s rail system. The strike’s principal leader,
Eugene V Debs, was sentenced to six months in the Woodstock Prison–where he celebrated the Labor
Day proclamation. He found the Woodstock experience to be quite educational as he swapped
experiences with his fellow class war prisoners and made good use of reading time. Debs went to jail
a Democrat but came out well on the way to recognition as the most prominent and influential Socialist
in American history.

For decades, in most cities and towns Labor Day was marked by parades and picnics. But such benign
mass gatherings of workers and their families started fading away in the Sixties and Seventies. A more
mobile working class increasingly used the long holiday weekend to hit the road for seasonal outdoor
activities.

An effort was made over the past ten years to resurrect union-sponsored Labor Day gatherings. Even
Kansas City joined in this revival. For the past several years the local labor movement has sponsored
a mini-parade followed by a big picnic on the expansive grounds of Liberty Memorial–a shrine
dedicated to the War to End All Wars, aka World War I.

But not this year. The directory of local events on the AFL-CIO website lists little activity on Labor Day
Monday. Most are like the sole listing for the Kansas City area–an August 30 Labor Walk door-to-door
in the suburb of Pleasant Valley to explain how evil are the Republicans.

The rhythms of the American labor movement today follow an electoral cycle beat. Most important is
the big one every Leap Year that puts the White House up for grabs. The Democrat convention doesn’t
officially begin until the morning after Labor Day but every union official who amounts to anything will
be in Charlotte well before the opening gavel to do whatever it is they do at such gatherings. It will be
a working holiday weekend for most of our labor statespersons.

But there will be some protests at the Dem gathering as well, some of them involving unions. For
example, the UE News reports,

“On August 6, one month before the Democratic National Convention comes to this North Carolina
city, workers employed by the city picketed the city council to demand recognition of their rights. They
plan to continue picketing every week until the convention begins, at which time they will be joined by
sisters and brothers from across the South in the Southern Workers Assembly.”

UE reminds us of the public sector labor policy of the state hosting labor’s “friends,”

“North Carolina General Statute (NCGS) § 95-98 continues to deny public employees in the state the
fundamental right, under international human rights standards, to bargain collectively and achieve labor
contracts with their employers. The City of Charlotte does not have the power on its own to repeal
NCGS § 95-98 , but the city does have the authority to initiate a meet-and-confer policy, which would
give union members input into decisions affecting them, and to institute voluntary union dues
check-off.”

There will also be an important Labor Day Rally in the President’s home town, now ruled by his former
Chief-of-Staff. The Chicago Teachers Union is inviting all who support them to come to Daley Plaza
to back their demands for Jobs, Dignity & a Fair Contract. After getting an overwhelming strike
authorization vote from members the union issued a ten-day strike notice last Wednesday.

As Federal government employee unions such as AFGE and the Postal Workers rushed to endorse
Obama just before the back-to-back conventions began the President showed he was thinking about
them. He renewed his unilateral imposition of a wage freeze for most civilian Federal employees for
another year.

Dark Side Lightens Up

After Dirty Harry and his empty chair warmed up the crowd in Tampa with some semi-risque stand-up,
the new Mitt injected some wholesome humor. He got some knee-slaps with,

“President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet.”

After the hearty laughter subsided the GOP standard-bearer assured them,

“My promise is to help you and your family.”

The by then peanut-free crowd arose in a prolonged standing ovation.

The President did indeed express hope about oceans and healing when he accepted his party’s
nomination four years ago. His green tinged remark was in contrast to the Republican slogan dejure of
Drill Baby Drill, successfully calculated to get the money and foot soldiers of the Pale Greens on board
for his campaign.

Of course, on the President’s watch sea levels have continued to rise and our biosphere increasingly
suffers irreversible damage. Obama early on decided to put all of his political capital in to two main
projects–health care “reform,” and escalation of the war in Afghanistan. There was no more flirtation
with even bogus cap-and-trade. At the crucial Copenhagen Climate Summit Obama swooped in for a
few hours to veto any kind of meaningful international agreement. Since the Midterm election he has
worked with CEOs on reducing “burdensome regulations”--including agencies such as the EPA, OSHA
and MSHA. New oil and gas drilling permits have been freely handed out. Fracking has become a
household word.

Romney’s ocean joke was at least timely. Simon Butler wrote in the Australian Green Left Weekly,

“More than 2 million square kilometers of Arctic ice that should be there, is not. A few years ago,
United Nations models predicted climate change would lead to ice-free Arctic summers within 100
years. Now, some scientists say it could melt away completely within the next few 100 weeks. And there
is next to no chance it will recover.”

“Our greatest concern is that loss of Arctic sea ice creates a grave threat of passing two other tipping
points — the potential instability of the Greenland ice sheet and methane hydrates. These latter two
tipping points would have consequences that are practically irreversible on time scales of relevance to
humanity.”

Just as is the case with every important issue, the choice presented by the two conventions on climate
change is between the Dark Side and the Darker Side.

Another Sharpeville

On March 21, 1960 police in Sharpeville, South Africa opened fire on a mass protest against new
Apartheid laws. The official count was 69 people killed, including 8 women and 10 children, and 180
injured, including 31 women and 19 children. Clearly, the presence of families signaled the peaceful
expectations of the demonstrators. Most victims had been shot in the back while fleeing.

The government immediately banned the two mass organizations leading national protests–the African
National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress. In the face of brutal suppression, civil disobedience
and peaceful demonstrations gave way to decades of armed struggle. An outraged international working
class developed numerous forms of solidarity that steadily isolated and weakened the Pretoria regime.
In the late Eighties negotiations began that led to an end of Apartheid and a transition to an ANC-led
government. March 21 is today a national holiday in South Africa.

I certainly wasn’t the only one to recall the horrors of Sharpeville while watching television coverage
of the August 16 massacre of striking mine workers in Marikana, South Africa. This time it was not
white racists responsible for shooting down Blacks but the ANC-controlled police. At least 34 strikers
died on the spot and more than eighty were wounded.

The official lie was that the police fired in self-defense as strikers with machetes attacked them. The
reality verified by eyewitness and film accounts is that the police first trapped a big group of miners. A
South African professor explained in an interview,

“And what seems to emerge from this picture is that the police surrounded these workers, they put
barbed wire fence, razor wire fence around the perimeter, they left a very narrow opening for these
workers, and basically opened fire with tear gas and rubber bullets. The workers then ran for the one
and only opening they could see in the barbed wire fence.”

Far from charging the cops the strikers were running away from their now gas-filled entrapment. Nearly
all were shot in the back. With chutzpah characteristic of past Apartheid rulers, the ANC authorities
held the strikers criminally responsible for the deaths and injuries, filing charges against more than 270
of them.

How could this happen? Claiming to be an “emerging country,” the ANC–with support of their loyal
followers in the trade union leadership--have been striving for partnership and restraint in labor
relations. The workers at the British-based Lomin platinum mines in Marikana decided to defy the
government and their union bureaucracy in order to improve their miserable wages and conditions. The
ANC establishment is determined to smash such a movement before it spreads any further.

Where the struggle on the ground in South Africa will go remains to be seen. But the world working
class that responded to Sharpeville should not remain silent when past heros turn their guns on striking
workers.

There was yet more sad news from South Africa last week. Neville Alexander, once a fellow prisoner
with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, passed away after a long bout with cancer at age 75. You can
read an appreciation of his remarkable life by clicking here.

About the Blogger

Retiree member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1287. Active member National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981. Webmaster of kclabor.org since March, 2000. Former Vice-President of ATU 1287. In Minneapolis during Seventies-Eighties held several posts in UE Local 1139 including Local President and Shop Chairman at Litton Microwave. Charter member of Labor Party Advocates. Founding member of US Labor Against the War.